This story is mainly about Beth, who separates from her husband after he has an affair, and deals with living alone and finding her own success, but also deals with her relationship with Adam and his illegitimate son from an earlier affair, Noah. Noah’s terminal illness is what propels this book forward, but it isn’t introduced until the second of three parts of this book. Because of this, the first part was boring as there was no real reason to keep reading it. Noah’s story was what brought this book depth.

Beth and Adam’s voices seem very similar and there’s nothing distinguishing between the two viewpoints. If I were to open the book to a random chapter, I wouldn’t be able to tell who was talking. Beth really grew as a character, and felt very real. At the beginning, she seemed kind of like a pushover and I was certain that she’d get back together with Adam. Through her interactions with her therapist and with Karen and Ben, as well as through her own success as a songwriter, it’s heartening to see how she grows stronger. The motif of Adam’s parents kept popping up, but when their story was finally revealed, it felt a little forced, and not really necessary to the plot.

This was a very solid book and an easy read, though nothing mind blowing. Overall, the story holds its own, but isn’t terribly enthralling. ( )

A bit different.
Husband cheating throughout most of the first half of the book. He says he's sorry and wants his wife back but is still with the woman.
There are some interesting points made about their situation.
British based.
HEA, sort of lets say they make peace with their lives.
( )

Het boek van jou en mij door Fionnuala Kearny

Een boek voor de lezers van Liane Moriarty staat er op de cover en dat vind ik niet waar. Liane heeft een heel eigen stijl, spits en sprankelend. Dat heeft Fionnuala niet. Wat niet wil zeggen dat dit geen goed boek is, haar stijl is gewoon anders. Ze is trager en minder flitsend maar het leest wel vlot en lekker en ze schrijft ook levensecht.

In dit geval over Erin en Dom, die als ze elkaar voor het eerst zien direct verliefd worden, snel trouwen en dan…
Op hun huwelijksfeest krijgen ze van Erins vader een schrift om op te schrijven wat ze elkaar niet durven of kunnen vertellen. Ze nemen het nogal lacherig aan maar later zal blijken dat ze het hard kunnen gebruiken. We volgen hun huwelijk over 20 jaar, met de nodige ups maar bovenal ook diepe downs, waarin er veel in het schrift wordt geschreven.

Kearny slaagt er in om ons een inkijk te geven in een huwelijk die aanvoelt als echt, omdat het zo morsig en chaotisch en diep-eerlijk en -pijnlijk is. Doordat beide partijen in het schrift schrijven, en wij meelezen, krijgt je een goed beeld van ieders kant van het verhaal. Erin en Dom zijn twee wijze, moedige mensen die soms domme fouten maken maar uit die fouten ook leren en wij leren ondertussen mee.
Een boek dat je doet nadenken en een beetje huilen, daar hou ik wel van! ( )

I really enjoyed this book. The subject matter is tough... especially if you have experienced any of the roles in this book or have watched loved ones deal with these things. For those reasons it really spoke to me. I was sure it would be a 4 star all the way through. It ended up with a 3 star rating purely because I found the ending disappointing for some reason. ( )

You, Me and Other People traces the breakdown of a marriage with alternating chapters representing the viewpoints of Beth and Adam. Initially I was not prepared to give Adam any leeway as he appeared weak, selfish and a stereo typical example of a man who thinks with his penis. Here was a man who had betrayed his wife twice, but figured twice in 20 years wasn't bad. Needless to say I was immediately on the side of team Beth who was struggling to cope with his actions while trying not to let her feelings influence the way her daughter Meg saw her father.

As the novel progressed secret after secret was revealed which made Adam's infidelity a mere drop in the ocean as far as lying was concerned. At the same time I had a scintilla of sympathy starting to emerge for Adam given the predicament he found himself in (albeit self inflicted). This grew by the end of the novel once his final 'secret' was revealed and he finally acknowledged he'd blown his chances. On the other side we see Beth starting to emerge from her persona as wife and mother to become a person in her own right, becoming confident, successful and decisive.

This book was really well written, the characters were believable and the responses realistic. I had to keep reading to find out what happened - I didn't want any stock solutions and thankfully I didn't get any. As this is a debut novel it bodes well for future titles and I look forward to reading more.

I received an ARC via NetGalley in return for an honest review. ( )